This invention relates to an apparatus for collecting fluid seepage in a building structure or the like. More particularly the invention relates to an apparatus for collecting fluid seepage occuring at locations of separation in structural slabs such as at expansion joints, and/or shrinkage cracks, settlement cracks, stress cracks or the like.
In the construction industry, office buildings, plaza decks, etc. are constructed with generally horizontal monolithic concrete, or other slab materials. In order to accomodate temperature expansion and contraction, these structural slabs are designed with periodic separations. The separations are then bridged by expansion joints which permit relative movement between the slabs.
Although a wide variety of expansion joint designs are known in the art, most expansion joints include a metallic bridge plate designed to be wide enough to bridge the gap between juxtaposed slabs. One portion of the bridge plate is fixedly mounted upon an edge of one slab and translatable rests upon a bearing plate mounted upon the edge of the juxtaposed slab. As the slabs expand and contract, the bridge plate slides back and forth above the separation and thus provides surface structural continuity in the building structure.
When expansion joints are placed in roofing sections of a building or in deck areas covering underground malls, a flexible sheet or resilient plug is interposed between adjacent slabs to provide a fluid barrier across the slab separations. This fluid barrier is necessary to prevent water or fluid from leaking through the expansion joint and damaging interior ceiling structures located beneath the slabs.
While such expansion joints theoretically are structurally sound and water tight, leakage through the expansion joint inevitably developes. In this regard, in some instances, the flexible sheet or resilient plug may not have initially been installed correctly. In other cases, the water-barrier material may decompose or fail with age. Additionally, where three or four slabs meet at corner junctions. Unexpected contraction or settling of the slabs may tear or rupture the water barrier. At any rate, and for whatever reason, those skilled in the art will appreciate that a substantial degree of difficulty is encountered in trying to maintain the water or fluid tight integrity of expansion joints. Moreover, once an expansion joint is installed, it is extremely difficult and often impractical to either repair or replace the water barrier means employed in the joint design.
In addition to water seepage through expansion joints, buildings and decks constructed with monolithic-concrete slabs and the like, sometimes experience at least a degree of settling or shrinkage. If the concrete reinforcing network has not been precisely positioned during construction such settling may create irregular stress cracks in the structural slabs. Once stress cracks develope, it is again extremely difficult to reestablish water-tight integrity of the structure.
Although expansion joint and stress crack seepage and damage is troublesome in connection with the roofs of buildings and deck areas, such problems are significantly exacerbated in multilevel parking garages. In this connection, cars entering a garage are often wet from rain or snow. When the cars are parked, at any level, the rain water drips from the car or the snow melts and drips onto the concrete slab below. Accordingly wet conditions often exist at every level in the garage.
Water on the garage decks then tends to seep into and through expansion joints and/or stress cracks and run by capillary action along the ceiling structure above parked cars. Eventually, the water film coalesces into a droplet which falls onto a parked car. In some instances, this seeping water picks up and carries mineral deposits which may damage the automobile finish. Although such water damage may subject a garage owner to liability, it is extremely difficult, as previously noted, to reestablish water-tight integrity of a monolithic slab structure once leakage exists.
Accordingly, in those instances where water damage has been encountered or is reasonably foreseeable, owners have sought to alleviate such difficulties by hanging metal troughs beneath the expansion joints or stress cracks. The troughs are fabricated in sections and soldered together at a work site into an integral gutter system which drains into a common down pipe.
While such a metal gutter system has achieved at least a degree of industry recognition and utilization, room for significant improvement remains. In this regard, such gutter systems are initially expensive to install. The materials are expensive and skilled laborers are required to fit and solder the sections together. Once installed, such a system is difficult to take apart and clean. Further, it is difficult to hang a metal gutter system beneath irregular stress cracks because of the stiffness of the material. Most significantly, it is difficult to prevent water seeping through expansion joints and cracks from running along the ceiling by capillary action and away from an underlying trough.
The problems suggested in the preceeding are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather are among many which may tend to reduce the effectiveness of prior systems. Other noteworthy problems may also exist in connection with water or fluid seepage and attempts to collect the water in building structures. However, those difficulties outlined above should be sufficient to demonstrate that significant water seepage problems and difficulties exist in the building construction industry.